President Donald Trump vowed Monday to allow only people who "want to love our country" into the United States, defending his immigration and refugee restrictions as he made his first visit to the headquarters for U.S. Central Command.

Trump allows citizens 'who love the US' into the country. Photo: AP

Trump reaffirmed his support for NATO before military leaders and troops and laced his speech with references to homeland security amid a court battle over his travel ban on people from seven majority-Muslim countries. He did not directly mention the case now before a federal appeals court after a lower court temporarily suspended the ban.

"We need strong programs" so that "people that love us and want to love our country and will end up loving our country are allowed in" and those who "want to destroy us and destroy our country" are kept out, Trump said.

"Freedom, security and justice will prevail," Trump added. "We will defeat radical Islamic terrorism and we will not allow it to take root in our country. We're not going to allow it."

Trump touched upon various alliances in his remarks, noting, "we strongly support NATO."

He spoke Sunday with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Speaking as commander in chief, Trump repeated his promises to defeat "radical Islamic terrorists" but provided no specifics on any policy changes he wants in the fight against the Islamic State. He complained about media coverage of terrorist attacks, suggesting there were many attacks going intentionally unreported by the media.

Asked for evidence to support that claim, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said he would provide a list, but did not do so immediately./.

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